REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 27, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. is positioned in the “Leaders” quadrant of the 2006 E-Mail Security Boundary Magic Quadrant, published this week by Gartner, Inc. The report evaluates services and products including Microsoft® Exchange Hosted Services (http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/services) and Forefront Security for Exchange Server (http://www.microsoft.com/forefront). According to Gartner, “Leaders” are performing well today, have a clear vision of market direction and are actively seeking competencies to sustain their leadership position in the market.

“We are delighted to be placed in the “Leaders” quadrant by Gartner because we believe it is validation of our commitment to delivering leading e-mail security products and services,” said Andy Lees, corporate vice president of Server and Tools Marketing at Microsoft. “Our work in e-mail security is an integral part of our broader security strategy and our overall commitment to helping customers protect information and control access to their IT infrastructure.”

Microsoft’s current enterprise e-mail security gateway offering includes the Exchange Hosted Services line, which features e-mail filtering, archiving, encryption and recovery. These technologies were acquired in August 2005 from FrontBridge Technologies Inc.

For on-premise e-mail gateway protection, customers can choose Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server, which is deployed on an Exchange 2007 Edge Server. Forefront Security for Exchange Server is the next generation of Microsoft Antigen for Exchange, which was released to market in early June. Both versions feature a multiple scan engine approach to provide layered protection for Exchange Server 2007 against the latest viruses, worms and spam. Forefront Security for Exchange Server is in public beta and scheduled for release at the end of 2006 or in early 2007.

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted Sept. 25, 2006, by Gartner and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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